It is a shocking tale of modern day slavery in Africa, now imported to the USA via immigration.  Legal immigration by the way.

Poor African families, to pay debts, essentially sell one of their children into slavery.   The case that has spurred this debate is a story by AP writer Rukmini Callimachi about a girl name Shyima who was given as a maid to a wealthy Egyptian family at the age of 10. 

Late at night, the neighbors saw a little girl at the kitchen sink of the house next door.

They watched through their window as the child rinsed plates under the open faucet. She wasn’t much taller than the counter and the soapy water swallowed her slender arms. To put the dishes away, she climbed on a chair.

But she was not the daughter of the couple next door doing chores. She was their maid.

Shyima was 10 when a wealthy Egyptian couple brought her from a poor village in northern Egypt to work in their California home. She awoke before dawn and often worked past midnight to iron their clothes, mop the marble floors and dust the family’s crystal. She earned $45 a month working up to 20 hours a day. She had no breaks during the day and no days off.

The money she ‘earned’ was paid to her family in Egypt.

The trafficking of children for domestic labor in the U.S. is an extension of an illegal but common practice in Africa. Families in remote villages send their daughters to work in cities for extra money and the opportunity to escape a dead-end life. Some girls work for free on the understanding that they will at least be better fed in the home of their employer.

American’s are outraged for two obvious reasons.  One, the most obvious, is our history combating slavery.  The second is a lesser discussed historical issue, that of child labor issues in America, a shameful practice that wasn’t really firmly dealt with until 1938.

The couple who bought Shyima, and forced her to work 20 hour days and sleep in the garage were eventually caught and convicted.  They paid her $76k for the money minimum wage should have earned her, went to a jail for a few years and got deported.  A small price to pay.  Now back in Egypt, they already have a new ‘maid’.

So when most countries clearly have laws against slavery, how does this persist?  Sophistry.  The children are not really slaves, they are indentured workers (Shyima’s family signed a contract for her for 10 years).  Their families are paid for the work they do, so they are not technically slaves, in their families minds.  The money they are paid, which is wretched by our standards is actually seen as a fair wage in a poor family.  The girls living conditions while dire by our standards are dramatically improved according to her family’s standard. 

And even the employers who abuse and degrade these children see themselves as doing a good thing:

If you could fly the garage where Shyima slept 7,000 miles to the sandy alleyway where her Egyptian family now lives, it would pass for the best home in the neighborhood.

The garage’s walls are made of concrete instead of hand-patted bricks. Its roof doesn’t leak. Its door shuts all the way. Shyima’s mother and her 10 brothers and sisters live in a two-bedroom house with uneven walls and a flaking ceiling. None of them have ever had a bed to themselves, much less a whole room. At night, bodies cover the sagging couches.

Shown a snapshot of the windowless garage, Shyima’s mother in the coastal town of Agami made a clucking sound of approval.

“It’s much cleaner than where many people here sleep,” said Helal, the child rights advocate. He explains that Shyima’s treatment in the Ibrahim home is considered normal — even good — by Egyptian standards.

Even though many child maids are physically abused, child labor is rarely prosecuted because the work isn’t considered strenuous. Many employers even see themselves as benefactors.

“There is a sense that children should work to help their family, but also that they are being given an opportunity,” said Mark Lagon, the director of the U.S. State Department’s Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons.

That’s especially the case for well-off families who transport their child servants to Western countries.

Have you ever talked to a person in a abusive relationship?  The abusers sometimes see themselves as helping the victim, and the victim is usually convinced they deserve it, or that they should be grateful.  The same pernicious logic is played out here.  This is good for her.  She is lucky to be a slave.  They did her a favor.

This is beyond evil and twisted.

This is why sometimes I see the practice of trying to appease immigrants from that part of the world and honoring their culture is a two edged sword.  Sure there are important cultural aspects to be respected, but then you see a culturally accepted practice like this, and you wonder…how many other hidden cultures persist?

I read this story first at Hot Air, and when researching this, I also found that Beth at Blue Star Chronicles has posted this.  But I also found that ABC News covered her story in 2007, as did Foreign Policy Blogs.

Then I found that the Orange County Register covered it in 2006.  Now, thanks to the recent AP story, it is getting a wider notice, but it still depresses me that it has such low impact on the news and it has been kicking around for over 2 years with an insignificant amount of occasional outrage.

I was encouraged for a moment about one thing.  The AP writer cross posted this on Huffington Post.

I thought perhaps they would put aside partisan BS for a greater cause.  Most did.

It didn’t take me long to find some unhinged people commenting on the story.

You see, a few of the liberals there have determined what the problem really is:  Too many kids, which is a result of a lack of birth control, which is because of a lack of family planning information, which is (of course) Bush’s fault.

That’s right.  Shyima owes her slavery to the fact her parents didn’t have condoms or that they didn’t abort her or a few of her siblings.

greymom
Did you all note that her parents had 10 children? Do you remember all of the aid to countries to supply birth control was cut off during the Bush administration because some of these agencies supplied abortion services? If she was one of two children in the family do you think they would have sold her into slavery?

Another person blames men in general:

mnkors
Do you, atlantajoe, have 10 sisters and brothers? Would you love to see your mother or sister exhausted by multiple pregnancies and gynecological troubles? To see their children uneducated and sick because there are no money to support the kids?
Men make rules, according to Southern Baptist Church and Pope. Women are defenseless if there are no contraceptives and no education.
So-sanctimonious Bush has just two kids. He and other so sanctimonious men has been always short on money to give a free health care to pregnant women and children.
Wall Street and bombers is a different story…

Another faults the wealthy:

loki
well lets see, if the top 1% have all the wealth, and they are the ones who do this, then I think its just another reason to rethink how many here worship the rich as being perfect and wonderful , intelligent and better than the rest of us. We dont buy young girls from other countries to be slaves and worse. but they do, so it must be ok??? Ivy Greed strikes again. When can we stop them? HOw can we stop them? They think they are above it all and can do whatever they want. And we let them.

One whines about their own “slavery”:

hollywood2008
Working in an office for 14 hours a day and making less than 1/100th of what my boss makes should be considered slavery

And of course, one prays for help from the savior:

MamaBird62 
One of the first things I hope Obama will work on (and reverse Bush policy) is our policy towards women and girls in the developing world. They need education and birth control to reduce this type of desperate situation. Only a mother with a dozen other starving children, and starving herself, would send her young child alone out into the world like this. It is a heartbreak for all concerned.
There will never be a shortage of people willing to take advantage of the less fortunate, we have to find ways to help them empower themselves and stay out of these situations.
Knowledge is power. American women, let’s share what we know and what we have and make the world better for women and girls.

I will note that on a few conservative blogs, the comments were nearly as unhinged.  Fair is fair.  These are unhinged people commenting, not policy statements from political leaders.  I am absolutely convinced that most people are right thinking and fair minded. 

But the idiots astound me.

So is there an answer as to what is the fault here? No.  Sorry, this is beyond a simple matter of policy, religion or demographics.  This falls back on the intrinsic evil in mankind.  Sorry if you feel that original sin and drapavity is too simplistic of an answer, but frankly it is the only explanation I can find.  Policies haven’t fixed it, birth control won’t, nor will wealth redistribution.  Evil exists.  Evil people exist in all cultures and demographics.  That has not changed throughout history, and it never will.

The wacky unhinged ravings, the attempts to pin the blame on the donkey, they are frankly just senseless distractions from the real issue:

The very people we should protect the most are the ones quite often the most victimized.  Child labor, sexual exploitation, child neglect and abuse and even abortion all show a lack of protection for our young.  

Apparently we have lost some of our nurturing instincts. 

Isn’t this more important than the Gay marriage ban in California?  When will we riot for child slavery?

This in my opinion is a lot more important than animal welfare activists trying to shut down KFC, or stop fur coats.  Sorry, in my twisted immature logic, a child is more important than a cow.

And frankly this is a whole lot more important that Obama’s hot body and fitness regime as displayed on so many sites.

As a culture, as a country, our priorities stink.  We care more about American Idol than American slaves.  And it pisses me off.

I can’t suggest that my ire is going to be effective in stopping it or even impacting it.  But I will confront the fact that I too have seriously messed up priorities. 

Maybe some of my blogs on global warming need to take a back seat to some on social issues with real consequences.  Maybe I need to devote some of my time blogging to more than shopping bags in Seattle or the bias in the media.

Maybe my priorities stink too.

Food for thought.  Can I do more? 

Can you?

Trackposted to Is It Just Me?, Blog @ MoreWhat.com, Rosemary’s Thoughts, Allie is Wired, third world county, Woman Honor Thyself, The World According to Carl, DragonLady’s World, The Pink Flamingo, L.O.M.A., Right Voices, Gone Hollywood, Blog @ MoreWhat.com, and Allie is Wired, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.